As we commemorate our 30th anniversary in 2020, the Orangutan Foundation reflects on our work in 2019 and thank all of our supporters for helping us give a future to orangutans, forests and people.
In early 2019, we launched our Sponsor an acre appeal to support the Orangutan Foundation’s Habitat Protection Programme. This programme provided training in SMART technology to monitor orangutan habitat to the 25 local people we employ at our 10 forest guard posts in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve and Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesian Borneo. This area covers over 500,000 acres of diverse tropical forest, home to around 5,000 orangutans.
As a result of continuing forest surveillance, in 2019 our teams recorded fewer instances of illegal activity and habitat encroachment in comparison to previous years. This is an encouraging sign for the protection of orangutan habitat, demonstrating that guard posts are an effective deterrent to illegal logging, mining and farming.
The Orangutan Foundation welcomed local participation in a number of educational workshops and events last year. Highlights included, a three-day Conservation Fun Camp, inviting university students to study at Pondok Ambung Tropical Forest Research Station, and celebrating Primate Awareness Day with local people. In addition to these community events, we also awarded three local research grants to conservationists of the future.
Our Habitat Restoration Programme continued to grow in 2019 with over 20,000 saplings planted in areas of degraded forest habitat. These saplings of fire-resistant species have been grown in purpose-built nurseries and will help establish a healthy forest habitat in the coming years. In line with our 30th anniversary, we hope to plant another 30,000 young trees in 2020, bringing the total to 100,000 since 2015.
A group of 12 dedicated volunteers embarked on a three-week trip to Indonesian Borneo last summer through Orangutan Foundation’s Volunteer Programme. In spite of ‘no skills necessary’, alongside our team they managed to totally renovate an important government building within the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, and had the opportunity to observe wild orangutans and other wildlife in the forest.
A combination of particularly dry conditions, illegal hunting and slash-and-burn farming techniques, meant that in 2019 our teams were involved in fighting the highest number of fires since 2015. Without the presence of our trained firefighting staff working with government officials, larger areas of the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve and Tanjung Puting National Park would have succumbed to further burning and habitat loss. We also installed six large wells positioned at strategic locations surrounding critical forest habitat which will be invaluable to fight fires.
The increased number of fires last year may also have contributed to the number of orangutan rescues our team performed. From mid-August to late November alone, our rescue team worked alongside local government officials BKSDA to rescue more orangutans than in the previous couple of years. In total, nine orangutans were translocated to the safety of the protected Lamandau Wildlife Reserve.
Our orangutan soft-release programme continued to care for orphaned infant orangutans at five release sites within the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. Last year, our team were thrilled to release Shifa into the wild who was rescued as a two-year-old pet in 2016. Shifa excelled at learning essential forest skills, and like orphaned orangutan Panglima who had been rescued in March 2019, was released for an independent life in the wild in June. Pegi, rescued from life as a pet is our most recent newcomer and continues to acquire new skills day by day at her new forest home at Camp Buluh.
In 2019 we welcomed a two new additions to the forest. Seen above, orangutan mother Mores gave birth to baby Marsha at Camp JL in July, followed by Amina who was spotted at Camp Rasak with newborn Albie. Having recorded over 80 orangutan births since 2003, we’ve established a new population of orangutans within the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve and our teams look forward to welcoming more newborns in 2020.
Looking to the future, we prepare ourselves for another busy year in 2020, marking our 30th anniversary. All of our UK and Indonesian staff thank you for your support in helping to provide a future for orangutans, forests and people.
